A new thread here or at least a new thread since I have joined up. My brother-in-law nicely gave me about a ½ chord of nice dry and clean apple wood. Living in an oak forest I have pretty much used only that oak. So, and tips or hints for using apple wood? Any different rubs that compliment the wood? I seem to think it will work best for poultry, and I am hearing the call of a goose of simply chicken rubbed with nothing but some salt and pepper.

I often do my turkeys with a combination of oak and apple. Although my Thanksgiving bird I used strictly pecan. Fruit woods are typically associated with pork, poultry and seafood. For me I use oak quite a bit and often with other woods. Some examples of things I'll typically do:

Burgers, steaks: oak/mesquite (for burgers I often use Jack Daniels chips)
Babyback Ribs, pork shoulder: oak/hickory, oak/apple, oak/cherry or sometimes straight cherry for ribs
pizza: oak/hickory
skirt steak (fajitas): mesquite
fish: oak/alder or straight oak or straight fruit wood, seaweed (yes seaweed) wine barrel oak chips when I can find them locally.
poultry: I'm kind of all over the map with poultry, I probably conduct more wild experiments with birdies than anything else. But I can tell you I probably most often employ fruit woods with poultry.
veggies: oak

As you can see I kinda like oak as a base. For me, it doesn't seem as though woods taste like the fruits they bear, the smoke is disctint to itself. Smoke some bread and make some toast to get a really good idea of what different smokes taste like. You might be surprised. In any case, I enjoy experimenting and do my best to avoid getting stuck in my ways. Try some unconventional things and see what happens

Roff,
I used apple wood on beer can chicken and just about any other poultry. I found that it is a lighter flavor than "traditional" wood for smoking so the wife likes it as I introduce her to smoking foods.

Man do do I envy you with all that apple wood. I love apple on my pork smokes, but it is hard to come by in N.W. Florida. A tip: when you smoke put some some sort of container under or close to the maet and put some cut up apples and water in the container. The water will steam and send off the flavor of the apples. An added touch is to sprinkle a little brown sugar over the apples.

Ok all. Thanks for the ideas. A 12 pound goose jumped into my shopping cart today. It is going in the brine -- I have a mind to use some pickeling spices in the brine -- on Friday night, and I will smoke it in the apple on Saturday. I definitely will report the results.

Readng the posts here, the next project will be a pork something. I don't think that I would use my standard red rub on it however. Salt and pepper and lots of garlic, yes indeed.

I would love to get ahold of some apple wood. Unfortunately there are few apple trees this far south. I have plenty of oak and mesquite. Just last week my boss said the he purchased a small bull dozer to clear mesquite trees off his property. So I asked if he minded me swinging by with a chainsaw. Very soon I'll have a whole new wood piile out back. Now I need to locate a source for peacan wood. Being the Texas state tree they are abundant, I just need to find someone willing to part with a few lower limbs now and then.

Hey Bob, If you have mesquite and pecan and want apple, man let do some trading…Though I doubt the cost of shipping would make it worth it.

I am here to report that the apple smoke goose was nothing short of fantastic. I brined it over night and simply smoked for almost 6 hours. Falling a part delicious. I am always amazed how little meat those big birds really have on them.

ThrRoff, you do an awesome goose! Great job Did you save us a slice???

Also I made a terrible discovery this weekend. Mesquite smoke gives me a major case of heartburn. I’ve experienced heartburn quite often in the past and I imagine many foods and drinks cause it. But here lately I’ve been using hickory as a main smoking wood. That’s all I’ve used for the past three to four months. Then Saturday I went for my second brisket ever and decided to use the traditional Texas mesquite. Wow, did I ever wake up at 2:00 a.m. So, now that I know, I can either avoid mesquite or take precautionary measures before eating it. I really hate this because mesquite tastes good and it’s so readily available and free!